


7 works for Toph and Zuko

by Strangestar



Category: Avatar (TV), Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Non-Explicit Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 11:46:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9723509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strangestar/pseuds/Strangestar
Summary: 7 works delving into the first year of Zuko and Toph's relationship.





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> I don't post on here very often, but I love these two together.

1:

They first met at Sokka and Suki’s engagement party. Zuko’s known the two since he was a freshman in college, since they basically saved him from himself. He's excited for their upcoming marriage. Seriously, he is. 

Maybe he’d be more excited if Mai hadn’t dumped him a month before. The previous two weeks had been filled with junk food, sad break up music, and sappy romance movies and tea courtesy of his uncle. Yet, this evening wasn’t about him and he knew that. It was about Sokka and Suki. Two of his best friends who were perfect for each other. 

The first thing Zuko realized as he walked into their tiny one bedroom apartment was the fact that he didn’t really know anybody other than the betrothed, Katara, and Aang. 

He said a brief hello to the four before resigning himself to a seat on the couch by himself, nursing a beer and trying to avoid conversation. The place was filled with the Kyoshi warriors from the studio Suki trained at, Sokka’s friends from his gym, and virtually any other classmate or companion who would “give them money and gifts”, as Sokka had delicately put it.

“What happened to you?” a voice sitting next to him said. He turned and saw a girl, maybe a year or two younger than him. Enchanting wide green eyes, hair down to her waist, wearing a green shirt and a smug grin. 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I can basically hear the angst,” she joked, taking a gulp of the drink she had. She was pretty. Zuko laughed. 

“I haven’t been having the best week...”

“What happened? Did your girlfriend break up with you?” she quipped. 

“Actually...yeah. She did.” A long pregnant pause fell between the two of them. 

“Um...sorry. I didn’t mean to...” she drawled, suddenly looking away. 

“No, don’t worry about it. It’s time I got over it anyway,” he assured himself with a nod. Another pause fell between them.

“So, how do you know Sokka and Suki?” she started.

“Sokka and I met as roommates freshman year. Friends ever since, I guess. I met Suki through him. What about you?”

“I grew up with Katara and Sokka. Our parents were somehow friends and we just spent a lot of time together.”

“Somehow?” he pondered, moving closer to this stranger. 

“My parents are the worst. Sokka’s dad is genuinely a decent person. I’m not quite sure how the two could ever get along.” Zuko chuckled. 

“I think I win for worst parent award, thank you very much,” he grinned, watching as she did the same. 

She’s so pretty when she smiles, he thought as her bangs fell into her eyes. 

“Ugh, I don’t really wanna talk about my parents right now,” she started as she took a drink. “So, fall out boy, what do you do for fun?”

The two spent the next hour sidling closer to each other on the couch and talking about anything that really came to mind. Politics, books, movies, the overwhelming price of college, work. She liked that he worked for his uncle’s tea shop and liked reading Haruki Murakami. He liked the way she laughed and that she listened to the Smiths. The party wore on into the evening and the two spent more and more time learning about each other. 

“Hey everybody, I got a message from the landlord saying we gotta stop now,” Sokka yelled over everybody, clearly ignoring the jeers and groans from the party attenders. 

“But thank you so much for coming! It was really sweet of all of you!” Suki added. 

Toph could hear the footsteps of everybody leaving and decided she probably should too. She carefully extracted her cane from her purse and got up from her seat. 

“What time is it?” she asked Zuko, who had also stood up. 

“11:17. Why?” he responded. It was only then that he realized that she was blind. 

Not that it really mattered. He realized that he hadn’t thought about Mai for the past two hours or so since meeting her. 

“Damn, I should probably get headed home,” she said with a yawn. 

“Can I walk you home?” Zuko asked. She nodded silently as the two went to say goodbye to their friends. Zuko could see the shocked and smug looks they all exchanged as the two walked away together. 

Zuko and Toph walked home in silence. Zuko tried not to think about how much he wanted to kiss her and Toph tried not to think about how he was probably just walking her home to be the nice guy who felt guilty about flirting with the blind girl. 

“Well, this is me,” Toph said, remembering the way back to her apartment from Sokka’s place. Another awkward silence fell on the two. 

“Um...Can I see you again?” he asked quickly, fiddling with his hands. Toph was taken aback. 

“Why? So you feel less bad about flirting with the blind girl, huh? I’m not here to sooth your feelings, you prick” she proclaimed, turning back towards the stairs leading to her place 

“What, wait, no! I just want to see you again!” he basically yelled to the entire neighborhood. Toph turned back to him slowly. 

“Look, I had more fun tonight than I’ve had in awhile. Hell, I don’t even know your name! I just want to see you again,” he confessed, moving closer to her. He tried not to think about the fact that their faces were at the same level since she was one the first step leading to her apartment.

“I won’t be able to see you, ever,” she giggled quietly. Zuko began laughing a second later, and soon the two were lost in a laughing fit, just standing there and laughing in each other’s faces about one small comment. 

Once the laughter fell, Toph smiled in his direction. 

“My name is Toph. Can you come back here tomorrow night at seven? I know a place,” she said gently. 

Toph, he thought to himself. 

“Yes! Tomorrow, seven!” he said excitedly. Toph laughed at his enthusiasm. 

“I’m Zuko, by the way,” he said quietly. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Zuko,” she quipped quietly, taking a step closer to him. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Toph,” he practically whispered, closing the small distance between them. 

Her lips felt softer than he would have imagined and tasted like honey. She could smell the cigarette smoke on his lips, yet didn’t care at all.


	2. The Following Weeks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the title says- the relationship spanning out for the next few weeks. Sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter!

2:

Their first date goes off without a hitch. It’s a low stress kind of thing;Toph takes him to a diner she goes to every so often. The two share fries and anecdotes and the owner keeps the shop open late. The two remind him of his own young love. 

One week passes and the two are constantly texting each other. They talk on the phone every evening to talk about their days. She likes hearing about his uncle’s antics at work and he likes to listen to her stories about strangers who go out of their way to treat her well when they learn she’s blind. 

Two weeks pass and they begin opening up to each other. Zuko’s at Toph’s place when she first tells him about her manipulative parents, always so controlling and disguising it as love. He tells her about his dead mother, his abusive father, his crazy little sister, about leaving to start a new life with his uncle with only a small amount of money. His head is in her lap when he tells her this and she runs her fingers over his heart beat, outlining the buttons on his shirt with her fingertips. She leans down to kiss him and for a small moment, he forgets. None of it really matters when she kisses him. The taste and feel of her lips stays with him until the next morning. He’s tired at work but it doesn’t really matter.

Three weeks pass and they have sex for the first time. They’re both lying if they said they hadn’t thought about it sooner, but the combination of work and school makes it difficult to see each other. It’s later in the evening when Zuko comes to Toph’s place after a shift at his uncle’s tea shop. Somehow, the two start kissing and the kissing leads to straying hands and Zuko’s kissing her jaw and neck and she never wants this feeling to end. Before either of them realize it, Toph’s unbuttoning his dress shirt and he’s getting her out of her black sweater and they’re in her bed. Zuko wakes up the next morning with his face pressed into the space between her shoulder blades, listening to her breathe. Her unruly hair is tied up into a bun on the top of her head and he slides his arm tighter around her, breathing her in. 

Four weeks pass and he’s serving tea at work when he realizes that he’s in love with her.


	3. Enter Uncle Iroh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uncle Iroh tries to find out more about Zuko's new "friend".

3:

“So, when are you going to tell me about this girl?” Uncle Iroh asks him one evening as they’re cleaning up. 

“Hmm? What?” Zuko sputters, quickly looking up from the table he was scrubbing down as he blushed. 

“Come on, Prince Zuko,” he starts, still calling him by the nickname he had called him when Zuko was a child. “You’ve been happier the past month than you’ve been in years, you haven’t snapped at any customers, you’re always on that phone. It has to be a girl.”

“I, uh, don’t know what you’re talking about,” he stammers back, refocusing himself on the task at hand. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of Toph at all, it was more that introducing anybody to anybody in his crazy family, even his kind, old uncle, would send any sane person running for the hills. Yet, he still knows there's no point in hiding anything from his uncle. Even when his father was cold and aloof, his uncle always knew exactly what was going around in Zuko's head. 

“Is it a boy? That’s okay too, I always just thought that-”

“Her name is Toph. We met at Sokka and Suki’s engagement party a few weeks ago,” he started with a blush, turning back to his uncle. 

“A few weeks? Prince Zuko, that was a month and a half ago,” he laughed. 

“I, uh, I mean yeah. You’re right, I guess. She’s known Katara forever and they go to school together,” he stammered, not realizing exactly how long the two had been together. Uncle Iroh smiled at this. 

“Is she beautiful?” he asked with an eyebrow raised. A smile broke out on Zuko’s face. 

“Yeah. She is.”


	4. Changes for Toph

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toph decides she needs a change.

4:

It’s the middle of the afternoon when Toph realized that she needed a change. 

Maybe it was the conversation she had had with her parents about her future. Her father wanted her to "drop out and marry the kind, young man from church, willing to look past your disability". Fuck him. Fuck her parents. Maybe it was the way that she couldn’t focus on her history reading, her mind continually drifting back to that conversation. Maybe it was the realization from the night before. 

Zuko had come over after his shift for dessert and tea and stayed for sex. It had been over a month and a half since she’d met him they still hadn’t necessarily labeled anything. Not that it mattered. 

He was peppering her neck with kisses as she giggled afterwards and when realized she was in love with him. He had to work early in the morning and she pretended to be asleep as he kissed her cheek goodbye in the morning. She laid in bed by herself, thinking about the past two months or so. She remembered running her index finger lightly over the scar that surrounded his right eye. She thought back to the time he'd told her about how his father had thrown him down a flight of stairs, how he was rushed to the hospital, how the scar still remained regardless of how hard the doctors worked. Her heart swelled for somebody who had been a stranger less than a few months ago. 

Fuck, she thought to herself, getting up to pace around her bedroom. Fuck fuck fuck. 

She couldn’t put a finger on it but there was something so different about him. Sure, she’d had a few boyfriends in the past. Vincent, the boy she’d met in Braille class. Thomas, the guy from the summer job she’d worked before her sophomore year of college. Katara had even tried to set her up with one of her students at one point in time. 

Yet, there was something about all of them that just didn’t seem...right. Maybe it was the way they’d always tip toe around her blindness. Always asking she needed help getting places, needed help finding her clothing, constantly asking to retrieve even the most menial items that she’d memorized the locations of. 

But there was something so different about Zuko. Her previous boyfriends would awkwardly cough and force laughter when she’d make comments about her own blindness. Zuko chuckled whenever she'd make a comment about it. Other boys would poke and prod and constantly question her about her blindness, always the same "were you born that way? What are your dreams like? Do you know what color is?".

But never with Zuko. They’d had one conversation about blindness after sex, and it was only when she’d brought it up. Instead of the same interrogation like before, he seemed genuinely curious and interested about what she was saying, He was so different than anybody else she had ever met. 

Her hair felt heavy on her head. She hadn’t bothered to cut her hair in over a year, and it was beginning to annoy her. She woke up every morning with it everywhere, only spend more time than she really wanted to spend shampooing it. 

Suki and Katara both came after class to find Toph sitting in her kitchen in a pair of jeans and a bralette, gripping a pair of scissors. 

“Cut it,” she announced, holding the scissors out to whoever was brave enough to do so. 

“Are you sure, Toph?” Katara questioned. “Maybe we should go to a salon or something.”

“It’s not like I’ll even be able to see it,” she started, rolling her eyes. “Suki, can you do this for me?” A moment passed. 

“Sure,” Suki said with a gulp, gripping the scissors. “How short did you want to go?”

“Just cut it,” Toph said quickly. 

Suki had taken Toph’s lower-back-length hair to just-below-the-shoulder hair before handing the scissors back to Toph. 

“What do you think?” Suki asked cautiously as Toph ran her hands through the hair. 

“Hmm...I was thinking maybe more...here,” she answered, quickly grasping the scissor and cutting a piece of her hair just below her chin. She giggled as Katara gasped loudly. 

“Your wish is my command, princess,” Suki giggled back and she began evening out the hair. It was cut into a long bob by the time she was done. 

Zuko came by that evening and gasped when she opened the door. She looked stunning. 

“You cut your hair,” he said with a smile. 

“You noticed,” she responded with a smirk. 

The two spoke about their days over the Chinese takeout Zuko had brought over and cuddled on the couch afterwards. 

“So, why the haircut?” he murmured into her neck.

“I just needed a change. I've been thinking about a lot of stuff lately,” she responded, exhaling as he started pressing kisses along her jaw. “I feel pretty.”

“You look beautiful,” he said quietly. 

She loved him, and she had no idea of what to do about it.


	5. Uncle Iroh Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uncle Iroh arrives at a bad time.

5: 

By some kind of miracle or act of God, the two somehow managed to have the same Saturday evening and Sunday morning off at the same time. Zuko took her to a listening exhibit at a local museum and out for dinner afterwards. She rested her head on his shoulder as the two shared a pair of earphones, much to the dismay of the museum worker. They laughed over pasta and Zuko ignored the annoyed glances being thrown their way. 

He was taking off her bra when he realized it had been over three months since he’d met her. Somehow in between the job shifts and the school work and the stress of their daily life, they’d managed to stay together. They’d started calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend weeks ago, but the whole anniversary thing still seemed foreign to them both.

He was gasping underneath her and watching her come when he realized that this was what he wanted for the rest of his life. For one small moment, it didn’t matter that he was broke and twenty two or that she was nineteen and still didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. None of it mattered. He was in love. 

The two stayed up for an extra hour after they’d finished just talking and laughing. Her face was settled underneath his chin, his hand pressed into the small of her back, holding her close to him. The two fell asleep like that. 

The next morning, Iroh woke up early to his alarm to head over to Zuko’s place. While things had been unusually stressful lately, Iroh still looked forward to these times when he and his nephew could spend their mornings over tea. 

He let himself into Zuko’s apartment quietly and tried to start his tea kettle as silently as possible, taking a moment to read the newspaper sitting on Zuko’s table in the kitchen/dining room/living room area. 

“Prince Zuko, tea is ready! Wake u-” he announced loudly, only to find his nephew fast asleep with who he guessed was the reason he seemed a bit distracted at work. Her back was turned to him and all he could see was her short black hair and his nephew’s hand cradled into the small of her back. The two jerked awake as Toph covered herself quickly, Iroh quickly leaving the room.

“I didn’t know you lived with your grandpa,” she started with a giggle. 

“I don’t, and he’s my uncle,” he laughed back, throwing on a pair of pants and a sweater. “I’ll be right back.”

“Uncle, I-”

“So this is the girl who’s been consuming your thoughts?” Iroh asked him with a smile. 

“Well, uh, see, I,” Zuko stuttered as his uncle laughed. 

“I’m going to leave you too for now, but I do want to meet her soon,” he said said with a wink. Zuko blushed and said goodbye to his uncle.


	6. Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confessions between two lovers.

6:

The two had spent a long evening together. Toph was helping Zuko organize seating arrangements for Sokka and Suki’s upcoming wedding. Thankfully, he wasn’t the best man,only Aang would be willing to tolerate a job like that, yet somehow he’d been placed in charge of the seating arrangement. The two had gone over the specific guidelines of who-couldn’t-sit-with-who-or-had-to-sit-by-so-and-so and had spent the past three hours squabbling over how to set everything up. 

“Okay, so we can’t put Sokka’s aunt Miriam by his other aunt Betsy or they’ll drink too much and cause a scene,” he stated. 

“So, put Miriam with the other middle aged ladies from Suki’s family,” she responded.

“Sure, but Suki’s family is coming all the way from Japan and apparently they don’t want to have to deal with Sokka’s family.”

“Wait, what? Actually? That’s hilarious,”

“Honest to God, apparently Suki’s aunt actually said that,”

The two laughed for a small moment. 

“Okay, well, how about putting her with Katara’s other side of the family? Didn’t she have some single uncles or something like that?”

“That’s probably our best bet at this point,” he sighed, moving the small paper labels around. “Sokka probably won’t be a fan of it tomorrow.”

“Well, that’s his problem. Maybe it’s time Miriam got back out there,” Toph started, moving her way to Zuko’s lap. He smiled as she straddled him in his chair and ran her fingers through his hair. 

“Hmm, you think?” he smiled back, kissing her neck and listening to her gasp on top of him. 

“Definitely. I also think you should take my pants off like right now,” she stated with a small giggle. 

“As you wish,” he returned, carrying her into his bedroom while she squealed. 

It wasn’t until later that evening when Toph was laid out on his chest and absentmindedly running her fingers over his arms and stomach did he think to tell her. 

“I love you,” he said quietly, barely above a whisper. Toph’s finger stopped its’ imaginary pattern and she stayed silent for a moment. 

“You know, maybe putting Miriam next to the family uncle was a bad idea, they may drink too much,” she responded blankly, trying to suppress a giggle as Zuko’s jaw fell open. 

“I’m just kidding, just kidding!” she laughed as Zuko started tickling her sides. She climbed onto his hips straddling him again. “I love you, too”

The two smiled for a small moment, not caring about anything else in the world for one small second. 

“So...we love each other and whatnot,” she declared, her hands finding their way back to Zuko’s chest. 

“Yep. I guess so,” he grinned back. She smiled down at him as he leaned up to kiss her again, with nothing else in the world mattering in that one moment.


	7. Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, a wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed!

7:

The next few months passed and life went on. Zuko and Toph still carved out time to be together were even considering moving in together. Katara was ecstatic when Toph told her about the relationship she’d somehow managed to keep a secret for the past few months. Zuko laughed and laughed when she told him the story. Zuko continued to work and work and Toph still went to university, finally settling on an education major with the hopes of teaching other blind kids someday. Eventually, Toph did meet Uncle Iroh and he immediately liked her, exchanging numbers when Zuko had gotten up to use the bathroom. 

Sokka and Suki’s wedding eventually happened, coincidentally on the same day Toph and Zuko had met the year previously. Katara spent the entire day running around, perfecting any last minute details, and working to make sure everything ran smoothly, and it did. Sure, there were a few hiccups along the way, but Sokka and Suki were finally married. 

The party started to wind down around 2:00 in the morning. Sokka and Suki had already left their own wedding, but apparently the Dj was hired to work until 3:00 a.m., so they had insisted that people stay at the venue longer. Finally, Katara had a chance to have a drink and a dance with her own boyfriend, who had been cautiously treading the line between helpful and annoying all day. Toph ditched her shoes and pulled her boyfriend on the dance floor hours ago, and they were slowly swaying to one of the last songs the Dj would play that night. 

“Did you realize it’s been a year since we met?” Zuko asked, one hand grasping Toph’s and the other placed on the small of her back. 

“Mhmm,” she mumbled back. “It’s kind of crazy to think about, you know?” Zuko pressed a kiss to her forehead. 

“I love you,” he murmured, barely audible above the music. 

“I love you, too.”

And even while the world sometimes seemed terrible, and even while Toph was usually stressed out from her classes, and even while Zuko was usually tired from work, and even while they were usually broke and making rent was nearly impossible, for one small moment in time, everything was perfect.


End file.
